The present invention relates to a method for providing communication between a first user and at least one further user comprising the steps of sending a page comprising information to a first client computer for presentation to the first user, receiving a selection from the page from the first client computer, sending information associated with the selection to at least one further client computer for presentation to a further user, sending a further page comprising further information associated with the selection to the at least one further client computer for presentation to the user, receiving a further selection from the further page from the at least one further client computer, and sending information associated with the further selection to the first client computer for presentation to the first user.
The article of S. Jacobs et al., ‘Filling HTML forms simultaneously: Coweb—architecture and functionality’, Computer Networks and ISDN systems, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, vol: 28, no 11, May 1, 1996, pages 1385–1395, describes such a method and associated system. The article describes a method and system for simultaneously viewing and using HTML documents by replacing HTML units by Java applets, which render a co-operative functionality to the document. This may be applied e.g. in the field of medicine, software development and administration. It is specifically aimed at working together by a number of people in one and the same document.
The standard manner of web browsing on a network such as the Internet is by accessing passive pages constructed used hypertext mark-up language (HTML) or some other page layout standard. These pages allow a user to follow hyperlinks in order to select which page is to be displayed next. This is not an actual interactive manner of communication, but merely a search through content in various media assisted by computer. Even when a web browser is used to access an active computer program running on the server dynamically calculating the web pages, such as by using forms, CGI-scripts and/or Java applets, the interaction is limited to that program on the server. Usually this program comprises only a restricted domain of information and a restricted format of input and output. This standard use of Internet and HTML formatted pages is restricted to receiving requests from a user by a server and subsequent downloading of the requested page to the user. This does not allow true interaction between multiple users.
It is further known to use the Internet for interactive communication between two humans by using chat programs such as Internet Relay Chat. These programs provide an interaction between two users in natural language, and the domain of information conferred is not restricted but determined by the users. However, the mode of interaction is restricted to typing sentences only and waiting for the other party to respond, which is rather slow and eliminates the use of other formats of information.
Likewise, the use of the short message service (SMS) capability of mobile phones, which is a further alternative, is rather cumbersome because of the difficult typing on a telephone keypad.
The present invention seeks to provide a method for allowing true interactive communication via the Internet between at least two users, allowing full use of existing and future technology.